February 2011
I hope someone here know the answer to this question. I bouth a Ford Mondeo Titanium 2007 X TDCI A a couple of days ago. However the service book is lost. I can establish at what milage the cambelt needs to be replaced. I have phoned more than 10 autorised Ford dealers only to get conflicting information.
Some say the car has a chain. Some say it has a cambelt and it needs replacing every 200 000 km, others every 62 500 miles and others every 100 000 miles. Who should I trust? Read more
I see in HJ's column about a reader who bought a car with an invalid tax disc and was fined £400 for this. Surely time for the Post office to do like the rest of the UK and not take cheques anymore for vehicle licensing. if you have a cheque book you have a debit card, and i feel that it was hard on the new owner, but he can sue the previous owner via the small claims court for the loss of the tax disk and the fine. I know that the DVLA are overworked and underfunded but it is hammering those who follow the rules, at least the guy bought a car which was taxed! As with Sorn for insurance, will catch a few forgettful people but the crew who don't bother with tax or insurance won't give a damn!
Simple solution for car registration is that you cannot cancel insurance until DVLA notified of change of owner. Post Office could do this in minutes for small fee if owner presents document and PO return it to DVLA. DVLA need to make it easier ti inform them of changes but in between times If you must do anything DVLA related pay the extra 75pence for recorded delivery, and keep a photocopy of what you send. It will save a lot of grief.... Read more
Tax disc should be £20 with big fines for not displaying - the £20 covers the cost of issuing and checking that the car is MoTd and insured . Fines of £500+ for no insurance / MoT.
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I've owned my 2001 Mondeo for 2 yrs now but in the last week it has started stalling when driving. It has done it approximately two times every 60miles (my commute) but only three days out of the past week. The only other thing to mention that may help is that during the past year approximately once a month the car has had unstable revs on start and stalled, two of these times i didn't think i would get it going again as it didn't start until 10+ attempts.
It has 103,000 on the clock and i had a new starter, mass flywheel and clutch last year at 99,000. Hope fully this isn't going to prove to be as expensive as the flywheel... Read more
I've been looking for a Passat or A6 1.9 tdi estate for some time. During that time I've viewed 3 Passats and realised I don't really like them. That leaves the A6. On autotrader there are about 7 times as many Passats for sale in this price range as A6s. Before anyone suggests a petrol car, I do cover around 20,000 miles a year, so I'm happy to view the ££ save each year would be my nest egg incase anything diesel related goes wrong. And I do need an estate.
I'm looking for suggestions of other estates I should perhaps consider, preferably from people who have actual experience of the vehicles. Read more
A Merc, with a level loading height of just 18 inches, which is a full 10 inches less (25cm) than my Octavia, at 28 inches.
Just thinking of selling my Aston martin its only done about 27,000 miles would I get more money for it if I kept it under rapps or should I get rid of it now. Read more
My X3 2006 (56 plate) recently lost power whilst driving so I dropped it off to the garage for an assessment - Just received a diagnosis that is a 'caked' breather (D06F) and that this is has cuased a failure with the turbo diesel. The bill is £3000 to replace everything and get the car running. The car has done only 35000 miles and is used by wife a a runaraound - Is this a common fault and can i get BMW to cover the cost of the repair as it seems to be a recurring issue with X3s and the turbo diesel engines? Basically I am looking for some help and leverage to get BMW to acknoweldge the fault and save me the repair bill, any help and advise would be appreciated. Read more
Hard to believe a caked DPF did not give warning lights on dash...
I have read lots of posts here about reliability, which set me thinking about all the cars my wife and I have owned in almost 40 years of driving. Maybe I am tempting fate here, but in all that time I have only ever been stranded twice, and only once had to call a tow truck.
Maybe we have been lucky but according to the doom merchants there are some real dogs in my list of cars:... Read more
Cars in chronological order and whether good bad or indifferent.
1976 P reg Hillman Imp - no mechanical faults but eventually rotten floor got to bad - learned to drive in this.
1980 W reg Lada 1300 - great car, no problems, new timing chain, converted to grp n rally spec and cut my teeth to get to clubmans A licence, finally piston rings blew after adding 80,000 odd miles.
1980 V reg Ford Cortina 1300L Mk V - terrible car, totally under powered, VV carbs meant rac was out to it more than to any othr car I've ever had. Finally written off after a blow out on a tyre passed as in excellent condition by k@@@fit 2 days earlier.
1983 Y reg MG Metro 1300 - good little car, reliable once the thermostat problem had been resolved as previous owner had bypassed it as a bodge job when it had failed.
1986 C reg Peugeot 305GT - excellent car, very reliable, only real problem was a failed brake servo. Added over 140000 miles in my profession as freelance motorsport photographer and motoring journalist.
1986 D reg Saab 9000i - fantastic reliable car, great for my high milage needs in my trade as with the 305GT. Covered 190000 miles in 3 1/2 years with only regular servicing and only car I've ever had to replace a clutch in. Not too heavy on fuel but extremely comfortable on long tiresome journeys.
1988 F reg Saab 9000SE turbo auto - great car, needed new turbo as Indy Saab specialist I bought it from and myself had been conned as it had receipts for a new turbo 9,000 miles previously from a dealer in Essex. On checking when turbo blew the dealer had never seen the car and the receipts supposedly been stolen by an ex employee. Very very heavy on fuel, 10 - 15 mpg but it had been tuned and modded by Abbott Racing.
1995 N reg Mondeo 1.8td lx Mk1 - nice enough car, patchy reliability needed timing belt, alternator, water pump, various other small items in 2 to 3 years of owning and low milage ( had given the business up by now ).
1998 S reg Mondeo 1.8td lx saloon Mk2 - same as above plus jinxed as it had 4 new rear bumpers as people kept hitting the back end ( their fault as proven by insurance claims and police ).
2000 X reg Focus 1.8td cl Mk1 - nice car to drive, useless in ice and snow, needed complete bottom end rebuild after 70,000 miles
2003 03 reg Focus 1.8tdci Mk1 - nice car but again bottom end rebuild needed after 73,000 miles. Started to get disillutioned with the blue oval brand.
2004 04 reg Mitsubishi Carisma 1.9td equippe - absolutely fantastic, best car I've ever owned, no problems at all, great dealer for accesories and servicing.
2003 53 reg Cmax 2.0tdci 140 zetec - quick car, very very heavy on diesel, under 30 mpg on a steady 70mph motorway run. Had problems with starting when warm occasionally. Finally lost all faith in the blue oval and would never ever have another Ford.
2005 55 reg VW Passat 2.0TD SE 140 Mk V - another fantastic car, no problems whatsoever, excellent mpg 50+ on urban cycle and 60 to 65 mpg on a steady motorway run.
2009 59 reg brand new Citroen Berlingo Multispace XTR 90 diesel - don't even mention this, have listed the many many complaints with this and Citroën dealers and Citroën uk in other posts. Totally unreliable, worst car I've ever had the misfortune to own/drive. Will never ever ever have another Citroën.
2010 10 reg Renault Grand Scenic Tomtom 106 Tdci - fantastic up to now, great space, comfort and reliability, starts first time even after standing 3 weeks during the dec snow.
1997 T reg Nissan Terrano 2.7 Td Xtreme - bought late 2009 to get into off roading with a local 4x4 club. Great car to cut my off roading teeth but got bitten by the Land Rover bug and wanted to do more off road than the car was capable of so traded it for a 1996 P reg Discovery 300tdi lady august and the disco is fantastic. Very reliable, spacious, great to drive, heavily off road modified with more to come and hopefully be with me for years to come.
Hope you've enjoyed my brief description of my cars in 27 years of driving. There have been others but they have been fully prepared saloon race cars, rally cars and rallycross cars which I have either owned or been paid to race - I'm also an ex racing and rally driver.
Carole
Hey all. Need some advice.
I purchased a V reg Ford Fiesta Zetec LX 1.25 yesterday and got advised that when started she makes a whisling noise, she got drove back from Norwich to Ipswich and the noise never stopped.... Read more
Could go at any time judging by description and on that mileage.
You should consider new idlers/tensioner,waterpump plus auxillary belt whilst you`re at it....
Last week, a pedestrian walked out in front of my van, there was nothing that I could do to prevent hitting him. I was doing about 20 in a 30mph zone. Fortuneately for the pedestrian there was an off duty ploiceman, a nurse and two first responders all on their way to work who were able to offer immediate assistance.
The problem that i have is that my vehicle was taken away for forensic examination and has been impounded for the last 5 days.... Read more
You need to press the police to return the vehicle.
As Falkirk Bairn says the damage is potenitally recoverable if the pedestrian can be shown to be at fault but extremely difficult to recover.
i have a strong smell of turps coming from bonnet and can smell in car as well my car has a three year warranty would the problem whatever it is be fixed under warranty any help would be appreciated Read more
One of the problems when parking under exotic pine trees!
(insert smiley face)
Browse
thank you for the correction, the_bandit ... 10 years is a LONG interval!